Getting bigger has not helped most big companies.
Indeed, size inhibits growth. In the new economy, some of the biggest companies
are ailing and failing.
Bigger doesn't make a company better at serving customers. Bigger isn't more
rewarding to work for. Bigger doesn't attract investment.
Big companies are hierarchical, self-reinforcing and organized to minimize new
threats to the existing order. Big-company management is focused inward, and
resources are directed towards preserving past successes, rather than future
opportunities.
Evidence shows that there are significant limitations to sheer size.
High-performance businesses are very rarely the biggest. With today's technology
acceleration, information is the basis of competitive advantage. Strategy and
execution must be organized around information, using it to gain unique market
insight that can rapidly be turned into products and services. In the new
information economy, the relationship between strategy and agility attains great
importance; most big companies just cannot be agile.
New products and services can obsolete the old frighteningly fast.
High-performance companies can achieve success by focus on the rapid development
of innovative new products and services for global markets. Today, that kind of
high performance usually comes from relatively small companies.
